My Morning Routine

Like most people, I have a morning routine. If any of this routine is interrupted, my day is ruined. Here’s the routine: I get up when I get up. I do not use an alarm. If I go to bed early, I get up early. If I go to bed late, I get up a little later. This is very simple. If I’m driving to the Midwest and have to leave at 3 a.m., I use an alarm. Otherwise, I get up when I get up.

The next thing I do in the morning is go downstairs and start the coffee. When I make the coffee, I hate when I find the grinds from the day before in the metal filter . This is very disturbing to me and makes me angry, but my anger lasts only a moment. After I dump the grinds in the garbage and rinse out the filter, I am back on track. I can put the new coffee grinds in the filter, fill up the water to the 9-cup line for the three of us drinking coffee, turn on the coffee pot and away we go. By the way, I have never had a coffee pot with a timer that I can set to start up at a certain time so the coffee is ready when I get up. That would mess up my routine.

Next I go outside and get the newspapers. If I go outside and the newspapers have not been delivered, I say out loud, “No news is not good news.” If I had to walk through a spider web as I stepped outside in the morning, I sing to myself, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider is probably in my hair.” Walking through spider webs used to bother me because I was afraid of spiders, but I am not afraid of spiders any more. You cannot be afraid of spiders when you are the only male in the house with four other females.

After I bring in the newspapers, I come back in and go get my coffee. If the coffee is not finished brewing, I pour a cup anyway. I need my coffee! I add two teaspoons of sugar and a tablespoon of Coffee Mate powdered creamer to each cup. I think I may like the sugar and cream more than the coffee. Then I go sit in “my chair” next to the lamp and read the papers. I subscribe to two newspapers: The Bergen (County) Record and the Wall Street Journal. One is politically left-leaning and one is politically right leaning. I read the Sports in the left-leaning one first and then read the national and local news, scan the obituaries, and then read as much as I can of the right leaning one. When I finish that, I am usually down to the wire on time. Then I read a chapter from the Bible. I wish I were more spiritual and read the Bible first, but I don’t. But at least I do read it.

I don’t really like to talk to people much before all of this has happened. I think I am actually morning person, but not a talkative morning person. I am a thinking morning person. I need about an hour and fifteen minutes to get ready for a day. If I oversleep by an hour, I need about about an hour and fifteen minutes to get ready for a day. This is how I roll.

As for the coffee, I like strong coffee. My favorite coffee is any strong coffee that is on sale. If I have paid full price for coffee at the grocery store, it doesn’t taste as good. If I have gotten the coffee on sale and I had a coupon, it tastes even better than if it is just on sale.

I have been doing some variation of this morning routine since I was in the 5th grade. My Mom did not give me coffee in my bottle, but I know a woman who did give her daughter coffee in a bottle and she turned out alright. And I think I turned out alright too.

My Reflections on My UPS Career on Founders Day

We were given a choice whether or not those of us who were having a milestone service year wanted to speak on Founders Day in our department meeting. Since the one consistent feedback I have gotten during my entire 25-year career at UPS was that I don’t speak up enough in meetings, I thought I would make up for the whole thing here today. No one intends to have a long career at UPS. You come to work at UPS as a temporary thing while you are planning your life. Those plans do not include UPS. We come for the benefits, the tuition assistance, the non-standard hours that don’t interfere with classes or our other real jobs. Parents don’t envision their kids growing up and working for UPS. I think these are just the basic realities of life. I worked the majority of my career in Information Services Learning & Development or Corp HR Learning & Development. I would have never lasted 25 years had I been in Operations. I know exactly how long I would have lasted in Operations had I wo...

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The Power of Public Prayers

“Jewish law prefers that Jews pray communally rather than privately.” Joseph Telushkin, “Minyan,” in Jewish Literacy , 719. I’ve been thinking about this notion for a few days after I read it because I get the impression that most of the Christians I know pray individually and about their own self interests more than anything else. I know this is true of me. But Telushkin, reiterating the teachings of the rabbis in connecting Jewish prayer to the concept of minyan , where the minimum number of males required to conduct a worship service or say certain prayers is ten, says that public prayer prevents such personal expressions of self-interest. He says: " . . . the rabbis apparently felt that public prayers are more apt to be offered for that which benefits the entire community, whereas individuals often pray for that which benefits only themselves, even if it be at the expense of someone else" (719). In Evangelical or Pentecostal services that I've attended, at some...

Rainey Blogs on Some Days

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